Today I was very excited to run my first sprint relay! I didn’t have the race I was hoping for but it was very fun to be a part of. We weren’t allowed GPS watches so I don’t have this on DOMA. The same goes for all the races this week. The team finished 16th today which was ok but I think there is obviously a lot of room for improvement, especially in terms of running speed.
The team was Laura, myself, Tessa and finally Matt. Laura had a very good race and put us in 9th place after her leg. Before my start I was feeling quite relaxed and I started calmly. I didn’t understand the trees around my first control and I was really confused leaving this control. I sorted myself out but lost about 30 seconds running too far to the right and stopping to relocate. There were a lot of people running around in front and behind me at the stage as the splits were very significant. I sorted myself out and got back in the zone and ran pretty clean through the rest of the park section up to control 10. However, analysis shows that I lost some time by running too much on the grass and not enough on the paths. The final five legs were very simple and I ran past a runner from Ukraine and handed on to Tessa in 11th place.
It is clear that I need to do more racing under pressure because I find myself falling back on old habits in big races. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s long distance and I feel ready. It will be important to show myself that I can keep my mind relaxed and focused under pressure.